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BOSTON — No, really, this is a story about Illinois and its first Elite Eight appearance since 2005. Promise. We’ll get to the Fighting Illini. But first, what comes next for them. It’s hard to ignore the looming shadow of that giant asteroid blazing across the sky. See, there is a growing air of inevitability (or impending doom, depending on your perspective) about Connecticut, champion of last year’s NCAA Tournament turned No. 1 overall seed and destroyer of worlds in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
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Dan Hurley’s recent assessment of his team, that these repeat-seeking Huskies are “bulletproof,” has never felt more true than after a 30-point bludgeoning of San Diego State in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night. It marked UConn’s ninth consecutive NCAA Tournament victory, all by double digits and by an average of 23 points.
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Now, back to the Illini. This is where they come in. They hope. No one has really made Connecticut uncomfortable in the last two tournaments. No one has made the Huskies sweat, almost literally. They never got pushed enough to even breathe particularly heavy Thursday.
“But,” Illinois forward Marcus Domask said, “we haven’t had our chance yet.”
It is entirely possible, maybe even probable at this point, that no one can apply any real pressure to this UConn team. The Illini at least looked equipped to try after outlasting Iowa State in the late game here Thursday, a 72-69 victory in which they never trailed. Brad Underwood’s team, before it takes a turn trying to pass through a wood chipper in one piece, warmed up by sticking its first into a meat grinder against the Cyclones and lived to tell of the toughness it took. Then Underwood sang Hurley’s song.
“We didn’t come here to win one game,” Underwood said. “We came here to win two.”
Came here to win two games.
The next challenge is ahead.#Illini | #HTTO | #EveryDayGuys pic.twitter.com/30mek4bi2w
— Illinois Men’s Basketball (@IlliniMBB) March 29, 2024
And why wouldn’t he feel that way? In a collision of Illinois’ No. 1-ranked offense and Iowa State’s No. 1-ranked defense, the scoring machine won. Led for 39 of 40 minutes, in fact. Terrence Shannon Jr., the problematic postseason superstar, dropped 29 points on T.J. Otzelberger’s suffocating team. It was Shannon’s seventh straight game scoring at least 25 points and, not coincidentally, the Illini have won all of those.
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After this one, an NCAA moderator for the postgame news conference had a placard in his hand with Shannon’s name on it. A reporter in the crowd pointed out that he probably wasn’t going to need that one, and an awkward silence followed. Shannon has been the best player in this tournament — and the Big Ten tournament before it — and has not said a word publicly. That’s because he is playing for Illinois despite a pending rape case. Now, no one really knows how to think, talk or write about him and all his on-court heroics. Individually, he’s been almost as unstoppable as UConn collectively.
But he’s not doing this alone. He sat for a long stretch in the second half with foul trouble and others had to hold the line. When Illinois’ lead shriveled from 13 points down to four, and then two, multiple times in the final few minutes against Iowa State, someone always had an answer: Dain Dainja’s layup and two steals in a 50-second span with eight minutes to go; Coleman Hawkins’ steal and pitch ahead for Domask’s driving, scoop-shot and-one with 5:38 to go; Shannon’s 3 with 5:04 to go; Luke Goode’s 3 with 4:21 to go; Dainja’s monster dunk with 2:21 to go.
“We have a super mature team,” Goode said. “When you get in situations like that, the guys that were on the court have basically seen it all. It’s almost like you’ve been there before. You know how to perform in those situations. You know how to step up when the team needs you.”
Seven of Illinois’ top eight players are juniors, seniors or super seniors, all of whom have played at least 73 games in college. Shannon, Domask, Hawkins and Quincy Guerrier have all played in at least 125 games. Guerrier has played in 168.
“It’s comforting to know that you know what they’re going to do,” Underwood said.
“That’s very important, and it showed today when they made runs and we just withstood that,” said Dainja, who redshirted on Baylor’s 2021 NCAA title team. “This really reminds me of that team. Just everybody sticking to their role, nobody overplaying their role, everybody falling in love with their role. We’re all together, and we all have one goal. With guys who’ve been in situations like this before, we can pull it off for sure.”
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While everyone marvels at what a machine Connecticut has been all season, Illinois has suddenly won 10 of 11 and quietly turned itself into arguably the biggest remaining threat to the Huskies’ pursuit of history. The Illini can score with UConn, which actually passed them for the No. 1-rated offense after another dominant performance Thursday, and Underwood noted that his maligned defense held Iowa State to 39.7 percent shooting Thursday.
So is Illinois intimidated by the Huskies? That word wrinkled some foreheads.
“I think it’s a higher level of respect,” Hawkins said, but certainly not fear.
“I’ve played a lot of teams that are supposed to beat us,” Domask said. “We want to come out of the gate and show them that we’re different. We don’t want to let them get up big on us early and then all of a sudden they get all the confidence like they’ve been there before and they’ll do it again. I think it’s really important that we just come out and set the tone. We’ve played a lot of basketball, so we should have a lot of confidence in ourselves and each other too.”
(Photo of Coleman Hawkins: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
